A Sentimental Little Poem

which is not very good, even, but after that long spate of really abstract, experimental stuff I was working on, my brain seems to have Wanted Very Badly to write a little epiphany-structured I-poem. Go figure.

I have fallen in love
broken hearts
and
destroyed property
sometimes all in the same night

I have been broken
had property stolen
and
wised up a little
but that took longer

All my favorite love songs are by Tom Waits
which tells you something

Confession is good they say
and
I agree
but not while you’re listening

The morning dove isn’t mourning
I wish it were
or that we were
that we might hold up
rest
wait
consider
and mourn
reach out toward what’s racing at us in the winds
with its grit
and
its bits of ocean and smoke
turn it

I would love to miss your face
that I might return to it

I want to fall in love, break hearts, and destroy
property,
all in one night,

but not your property,
and not your heart.